Wu was downloaded running on an i7 and uploaded from an A8, seems not to make any problem.
It wont cause any problems. I've been doing this for years without problems.
From your original message on the BOINC message board you said
Quote:
The reason is quite simple: I run many computers, often only a few days to upgrade or repair; they need a test run. They could still do something for the science. Unfortunately they would produce a lot of half-finished wu's, because they must be returned.
I took this to mean that you are probably in the business of servicing/repairing/upgrading PCs for other people - maybe friends/relatives or maybe as a service for which you are contracting. You service the machine, run it under test for a period and then return it to its owner in 'pristine' condition. That is the vision I had.
The immediate thing that strikes me is that, without proper permission, you probably shouldn't install or modify stuff directly on the hard disk of the machine under test. With Windows, even if you were running on external media, you would be changing the registry if you installed BOINC. I know very little about the registry so maybe it's easy to 'clean up' after you finish testing. Even if clean up can be done without leaving a trace, you still have the risk of a crash under load doing damage to the real owner's OS installation.
With Linux, it's extremely easy to do what you want, with no risk, no matter what OS is installed on the HDD. You could have an external live USB disk that will boot a distro of choice and automatically find and start BOINC, either on that same disk or on a separate USB pen drive, leaving the internal HDD completely untouched. Once started, it would access the external media only and resume whatever tasks were partly completed on a previous machine quite happily. You could use BOINC Manager just as you do now to monitor BOINC's progress and you could shut down whenever you wanted.
Once set up, the amount of Linux know how you would need would be quite minimal, unless you wanted to do some quite fancy things :-). However, there would be a bit of work to set up the live USB in the first place. There would be a bit of scripting behind the point and click user interface, most of which already exists. I haven't really looked at the Dotsch system but I'm sure it would be great if you wanted a server with a whole bunch of diskless clients. If you were just testing one or two machines at any one time, individual live USB setups should be simpler.
I run a caching proxy server, while it can help a bit it doesn't really store up work units.
The idea with superhost is it would be able to cache work units and then hand them out as PC's asked for them. Great if you have a number of PC or run a team. It might even be useful for projects to run a number of them as they effectively become upload/download servers.
As you saw in your reply from Dr A, they don't have any plans to proceed with it at the moment. If enough people express interest maybe we could convince Dr A to proceed with it or maybe others wish to get involved in the development.
thanks for your reply, I apreciate that.
Your absolutely right, without permission noone should even try to install anything on computers not belonging to him. Be shure, I have this permission.
Most of these pc's are used as 'Touchpanels' for media control systems; they come for yearly maintenance (dust removal, fan check, updates etc) and some of them for changing the HD. These systems run 7/24. I have a checked image and can restore them to 'factory defaults' within 15 minutes.
I agree, Linux would be the better choice for scientific applications. Unfortunately all the programs and application I use are windows-based. I never had enough time to become really familiar with linux; this includes actions like modifying the registry, remote controlling and maintaining systems aso; I can do that with windows systems.
The way I have choosen is installing VirtualBox, a well documented and widely used virtualization enviroment. Boinc runs inside a virtual XP which is located on the pendrive. So all changes in the registry are done on the stick only. If this works fine for 14 days or so I will create two more sticks.
I'm aware, that's different to the 'SuperHost' idea. I would prefer that, but it's far, far away from what I am able to create. But I can live with what I have now.
unless you wanted to do some quite fancy things
yes, this is what I would try if I had a linux running and enogh time for that.
@Alex : it does take a short while to get used to Linux systems, if not previously familiar. The mildly tricky bit for me was getting acquainted with the permissions system, especially what it means to be 'root'. Otherwise I found it a gentle learning slope. Your do need to choose a distribution & shell, which may impact on ease of use and what apps & tools are written for what you have in mind. But I found that pretty well anything is available ie. someone has already had a need/aim/desire similiar to oneself and thus a modicum of searching can get you there. There is a vast Linux community out there which can guide you. Best to use a distro which is well supported, as most are. I found upgrades/updates quite seamless. FWIW I use Ubuntu with Gnome, but that was simply due to the book I first picked up about Linux had that as a free disc within.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
One approach (that I use) is to boot the PC's 'diskless', via the LAN. Virtually every PC nowadays will boot diskless - you just enable the LAN boot ROM in the BIOS and make it first in the boot order (before the HDD). Then the hard disk in the PC is never used, and everything resides on the local server.
Of course you have to set up a diskless server first. To build one, the hardware can be any old PC with enough disk space, and the software can be (usually) a basic copy of linux. Once you've invested the time in setting up the server, it means you don't even have to set up new PCs - no OS install needed, just boot it diskless and it can be running in minutes.
Although I haven't tried it yet, it seems (from Horacio's and other advice above) you can easily move BOINC jobs from one diskless PC to another - that would allow you to shut down a PC with work remaining, and resume it on another one.
RE: Wu was downloaded
)
It wont cause any problems. I've been doing this for years without problems.
From your original message on the BOINC message board you said
I took this to mean that you are probably in the business of servicing/repairing/upgrading PCs for other people - maybe friends/relatives or maybe as a service for which you are contracting. You service the machine, run it under test for a period and then return it to its owner in 'pristine' condition. That is the vision I had.
The immediate thing that strikes me is that, without proper permission, you probably shouldn't install or modify stuff directly on the hard disk of the machine under test. With Windows, even if you were running on external media, you would be changing the registry if you installed BOINC. I know very little about the registry so maybe it's easy to 'clean up' after you finish testing. Even if clean up can be done without leaving a trace, you still have the risk of a crash under load doing damage to the real owner's OS installation.
With Linux, it's extremely easy to do what you want, with no risk, no matter what OS is installed on the HDD. You could have an external live USB disk that will boot a distro of choice and automatically find and start BOINC, either on that same disk or on a separate USB pen drive, leaving the internal HDD completely untouched. Once started, it would access the external media only and resume whatever tasks were partly completed on a previous machine quite happily. You could use BOINC Manager just as you do now to monitor BOINC's progress and you could shut down whenever you wanted.
Once set up, the amount of Linux know how you would need would be quite minimal, unless you wanted to do some quite fancy things :-). However, there would be a bit of work to set up the live USB in the first place. There would be a bit of scripting behind the point and click user interface, most of which already exists. I haven't really looked at the Dotsch system but I'm sure it would be great if you wanted a server with a whole bunch of diskless clients. If you were just testing one or two machines at any one time, individual live USB setups should be simpler.
Cheers,
Gary.
I run a caching proxy server,
)
I run a caching proxy server, while it can help a bit it doesn't really store up work units.
The idea with superhost is it would be able to cache work units and then hand them out as PC's asked for them. Great if you have a number of PC or run a team. It might even be useful for projects to run a number of them as they effectively become upload/download servers.
As you saw in your reply from Dr A, they don't have any plans to proceed with it at the moment. If enough people express interest maybe we could convince Dr A to proceed with it or maybe others wish to get involved in the development.
BOINC blog
Hi Gary, thanks for your
)
Hi Gary,
thanks for your reply, I apreciate that.
Your absolutely right, without permission noone should even try to install anything on computers not belonging to him. Be shure, I have this permission.
Most of these pc's are used as 'Touchpanels' for media control systems; they come for yearly maintenance (dust removal, fan check, updates etc) and some of them for changing the HD. These systems run 7/24. I have a checked image and can restore them to 'factory defaults' within 15 minutes.
I agree, Linux would be the better choice for scientific applications. Unfortunately all the programs and application I use are windows-based. I never had enough time to become really familiar with linux; this includes actions like modifying the registry, remote controlling and maintaining systems aso; I can do that with windows systems.
The way I have choosen is installing VirtualBox, a well documented and widely used virtualization enviroment. Boinc runs inside a virtual XP which is located on the pendrive. So all changes in the registry are done on the stick only. If this works fine for 14 days or so I will create two more sticks.
I'm aware, that's different to the 'SuperHost' idea. I would prefer that, but it's far, far away from what I am able to create. But I can live with what I have now.
unless you wanted to do some quite fancy things
yes, this is what I would try if I had a linux running and enogh time for that.
Alexander
@Alex : it does take a short
)
@Alex : it does take a short while to get used to Linux systems, if not previously familiar. The mildly tricky bit for me was getting acquainted with the permissions system, especially what it means to be 'root'. Otherwise I found it a gentle learning slope. Your do need to choose a distribution & shell, which may impact on ease of use and what apps & tools are written for what you have in mind. But I found that pretty well anything is available ie. someone has already had a need/aim/desire similiar to oneself and thus a modicum of searching can get you there. There is a vast Linux community out there which can guide you. Best to use a distro which is well supported, as most are. I found upgrades/updates quite seamless. FWIW I use Ubuntu with Gnome, but that was simply due to the book I first picked up about Linux had that as a free disc within.
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
One approach (that I use) is
)
One approach (that I use) is to boot the PC's 'diskless', via the LAN. Virtually every PC nowadays will boot diskless - you just enable the LAN boot ROM in the BIOS and make it first in the boot order (before the HDD). Then the hard disk in the PC is never used, and everything resides on the local server.
Of course you have to set up a diskless server first. To build one, the hardware can be any old PC with enough disk space, and the software can be (usually) a basic copy of linux. Once you've invested the time in setting up the server, it means you don't even have to set up new PCs - no OS install needed, just boot it diskless and it can be running in minutes.
Although I haven't tried it yet, it seems (from Horacio's and other advice above) you can easily move BOINC jobs from one diskless PC to another - that would allow you to shut down a PC with work remaining, and resume it on another one.
(first post BTW).